The Fourth Annual Diocesan Young Women’s Encounter is open to young women in our Diocese ages 12-18.

This engaging experience will include spiritual discussions and special events. Participants will explore the role of women in the church and develop and strengthen friendships with other Orthodox young women. The YWE will highlight ways young women can live our Orthodox Faith and serve the Church with their own unique gifts.

The Eleventh Annual Diaconal Liturgical Practicum of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) will be held on the campus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, NY. The four-day program will offer intense practical liturgical training for deacons and lay diaconal candidates. Sessions begin late evening on Sunday, June 25, and end after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy on Wednesday, June 28.

PaTRAM Institute is very excited to announce a special opportunity to work in the US with Maestro Vladimir Gorbik in June of 2017. The maestro will lead a workshop for Orthodox singers at the St. Matrona Cathedral in Dania Beach (near Fort Lauderdale), Florida. Vladimir Gorbik is the world-famous choirmaster at the Holy Trinity Troitsa-Sergiev Lavra Podvorie in Moscow and associate professor of conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. The event will culminate in singing the hierarchical All Night Vigil and Divine Liturgy.

Organized by: PaTRAM Institute. The Summer Conductors’ Master Class, conducted by Maestro Vladimir Gorbik, at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra Representation, Moscow, Russia. The class will focus entirely on conductor development and provide qualified individuals with an opportunity to conduct the world renowned professional choir during several Orthodox services. The class will culminate in celebration of the great feast of Saints Peter and Paul officiated by His Grace, Bishop Nikolai of Manhattan.

Four Harvard College students will fill internships teaching the CHS High School Summer Program (HSSP) in Greece. The teaching fellows will assist the HSSP faculty members in planning, coordinating, and teaching the 2-week, college-level seminar. The internship has two phases: spring preparation in Cambridge MA, and the seminar itself in July in Nafplio, Greece. Learn more about the program here.

“After the Agon: Olympic Memory in Ancient and Modern Athletics”

The International Olympic Academy (IOA), in cooperation with Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS), is organizing the Sixth International Scholars’ Symposium on “Sports, Society, and Culture” in Ancient Olympia, on July 9-13, 2017. As in the past years, the Symposium will host scholars from around the world and bring together more than a hundred students and professors from Universities in Greece and abroad.

The Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the Midwest and Diocese of Western Pennsylvania will co-sponsor the fourth annual Small Parish Forum. The theme of the 2017 Forum is “Becoming a Community of Engagement — On Behalf of All”.

The 2017 New Kensington, PA location is just a two-hour drive from Cleveland, four and a half hours from Detroit, less than four hours from Buffalo, and five hours from Philadelphia. Over half of the OCA’s parishes are within a manageable drive of the site.

His Grace Bishop Longin has appointed Peter Jermihov (www.peterjermihov.com), a well-known conductor and Orthodox church musician, to lead the Liturgical Choir for this historic Sunday Hierarchical Liturgy. Bishop Longin has asked His Episcopal Choir to contact the choirs and choir directors of all of our Serbian Orthodox parishes in the Midwest to recommend singers for this special Liturgical Choir. Please send the names and email addresses of the singers that you have chosen to participate to the email below by or before Pascha/Easter, April 16. Thereafter, we will provide these singers with the sheet music, along with information regarding the rehearsal schedule, which will consist of three (3) Saturday practices.

Please lend your voice to the glorification of St. Mardarije, whose canonization is truly a blessing for all Orthodox Christians, especially for our Serbian Orthodox Church and for his beloved St. Sava Monastery!With the Blessing of His Grace Bishop Longin and on Behalf of His Episcopal Choir.

Support HCHC’s vital mission of educating future leaders for service in the Church and society by participating in a day of golf on the beautiful Kernwood Country Club course, designed by the legendary Donald Ross. Start the day with brunch, followed by souvlaki and locanico served course-side. After 18 holes, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, complimentary cocktails, and a surf and turf (sirloin and lobster) dinner. Trophies and raffle prizes will be awarded at dinner.

For more information: call or contact organizer for sponsorships or to reserve a foursome. or

The registration is now open for this year’s St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp! The dates are Monday, July 17th(afternoon) through Friday July 21st (afternoon) at Sky Camp, near Eugene Oregon, which has been the location for the last few years. The theme this year is “The Holy Image”.This is a spiritual retreat for the whole family, where you can come and refresh your soul and get the best of both a retreat and a vacation!

After eight decades of “love, humility and sunshine” in service to the Antiochian Orthodox Church, His Grace Bishop Antoun of the Diocese of Miami and the Southeast is retiring from active ministry. This July 23-30, the Antiochian Archdiocese’s biennial convention in Miami will celebrate his remarkable witness to our Lord Jesus Christ as an acolyte, deacon, priest and bishop. The convention’s host, St. George Cathedral of Coral Gables, Florida is preparing exciting festivities.

New details are constantly emerging, so get the latest information at www.ac2017miami.org and follow the Archdiocesan Convention on Facebook.

Holy Cross will once again host the annual summer session of the Diaconate Program. The program, a joint initiative of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Holy Cross, is designed to prepare men for service to the Church as deacons.

A Joyous Fast to All! There is still opportunity to RSVP!!! Abbot Tryphon of All-Merciful Saviour Monastery located on beautiful Vashon Island, Wa., will be hosting the retreat.

Abbot Tryphon has a both a Blog The Morning Offering (Daily Inspiration from All-Merciful Saviour Monastery) and a daily Podcast also called The Morning Offering Podcast. His site features daily scripture verses, a reflection, and often some lovely pictures of the Monastery or other local NW Orthodox Churches to inspire our pilgrim journey. He has a book “The Morning Offering” which can be purchased here. On a side note I know the Monastery could use financial support. They receive a number of pilgrims and visitors and need to build guest quarters.
For more information: https://vashonmonks.com/wp/index.php

Beloved Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Eastern American Diocese,

It is with exceedingly great joy and anticipation that we write to invite all faithful and friends of our God-protected Diocese to our annual Diocesan Day Celebration and Patronal Celebration of the Venerable Mother Angelina.

Diocesan Day activities will begin at 10:00 AM, with the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, followed by a picnic and program, featuring our Folklore Group from Tambura Week, as well as music for everyone’s pleasure and enjoyment.

All concelebrating clergy are asked to bring gold/white vestments. We ask that churches arrange transportation for their interested members.

We look forward to spending Saturday, August 5th with all of you at our beautiful St. Sava Camp and Shadeland Diocesan Estate.

The Mission Field needs medical professionals to volunteer on short-term mission teams this summer! Administering health care to people who do not normally have access to treatment is such an essential part of OCMC missions, and your expertise could make a huge impact on suffering people around the world. Won’t you consider volunteering this year to alleviate their suffering?

GuatemalaProvide health care and health education in the predominately Mayan region of northern Guatemala. Show the love of Christ by sharing your talents as a health care provider in Aguacate at the Fr. Andres Giron Clinic.

To mark the ecclesiastical new year, St. Vladimir’s Seminarywill host a lecture on Orthodoxy and ecology by Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff. The lecture is sponsored by St. Herman’s Society for Orthodox Ecology, a student group at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Members of St. Herman’s Society selected the date to coincide with the ecclesiastical new year because His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, has designated this date as a day dedicated to environmental protection. More information is available at the St. Vladimir’s Seminary website: http://www.hchc.edu/studentlife/vocation/osi/1101

The St. Nicholas ACRY Chapter #11- Homestead will be the host of the 73rd National Senior and 34th National Junior ACRY Convention. The Chapter is already working hard to provide you with a great Convention this year. We hope you will make the trip to the Pittsburgh, PA area for a fun and enjoyable weekend!

We are headquartered at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott at 777 Aten Road, Coraopolis, PA 15108

A golf outing has been organized for Friday morning, September 1st. The golf outing will be held at Ponderosa Golf Course, 2728 State Route 168, Hookstown, PA 15050. www.ponderosagolfcourse.com

Sign up soon—your registration fee includes all greens fees and golf carts!

The local Chicago Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America ( FOCA) chapters invite you to join us for the 91st FOCA National Convention. The New Jersey District, sponsors of a number of very successful National Conventions, will be the host group for 2017 as we gather at the well-situated Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel in Harrisburg, PA.

“THE CHURCH AS FAMILY & THE FAMILY AS CHURCH”. “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and, members of the household of God..” –Ephesians 2:19

With Special Guest: REVEREND TIMOTHY PAVLATOS. Clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family, Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and Director of the Family Wellness Ministry for the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco; and with Special Guest HierarchRIGHT REVEREND SAVA, Bishop of the Georgian Orthodox Diocese of North America

THE GIFT OF HOSPITALITY in collaboration with the Orthodox Churches. The 25th International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, organized in collaboration with the Orthodox Churches (Bose, 6–9 September 2017) wishes to examine more closely an essential dimension of Christian life: xenitia, the consciousness of being strangers and temporary residents on earth (cf. Heb 11,13), which leads to welcoming the other as a gift of God, to philoxenia (cf. Heb 13,2).

Presented by Rich Custer. Enjoy a unique Saturday afternoon as Rich Custer will discuss the preparation of a history, in words and in pictures, of the Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant communities in the state of Pennsylvania. Through the collection and research of chain migration data, parish histories, church and civil records, immigrant newspapers, photographs, oral histories, and memoirs, Rich Custer has amassed a collection of source material that he is assembling into the most comprehensive look at the history of Carpatho-Rusyn communities anywhere in the world. He will specially address the history of Carpatho-Rusyns in the Delaware Valley, in places like Philadephia, Chester, Mont Clare/Phoenixville/ Bridgeport, as well as Trenton, Roebling, and Camden in New Jersey.

Admission is free and open to the public. Rusyn literature will be available for sale. A social hour is scheduled for 1:00 pm when viewers could enjoy freshly brewed coffee along with cookies or cake.

The Mission Field needs medical professionals to volunteer on short-term mission teams this summer! Administering health care to people who do not normally have access to treatment is such an essential part of OCMC missions, and your expertise could make a huge impact on suffering people around the world. Won’t you consider volunteering this year to alleviate their suffering?

IndonesiaAssist with the health care outreach at the Theotokos Orthodox Hospital in Medan, Indonesia and be a part of an Orthodox witness in a Muslim nation.

The Berlin Painter and His World Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. This exhibition of ancient Athenian vase-painting, organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, focuses on the art and career of the anonymous artist known as the Berlin Painter. Visit the museum’s website at: toledomuseum.org for directions and times. http://www.hpsneo.org/programsevents.aspx

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Upcoming Events

The Mission Field needs medical professionals to volunteer on short-term mission teams this summer! Administering health care to people who do not normally have access to treatment is such an essential part of OCMC missions,

The Berlin Painter and His World Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. This exhibition of ancient Athenian vase-painting, organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, focuses on the art and career of the

Proclaiming 2017 as the “125th Year of Orthodox Christianity in Greater Chicago,” the region’s ruling bishops have endorsed a historic celebration to take place on Saturday, September 30, 2017. Sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Clergy

“Even Tears Were Not Enough” is the second documentary by John Righetti and Maria Silvestri. It features scholars and survivors telling the story of the forced deportation of Poland’s Carpatho-Rusyn population by the Polish Communist

United States Session Title: Views To and From the Wondrous Mountain (Panel 3A) Session Date: Oct 6, 2017 (2:30 PM – 4:35 PM) For more information: https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/bsc2017/registration The body of the stylite, ambiguously depicted as

The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology is pleased to announce a “Symposium on Creation and Ecology: Insights from Patristic and Contemporary Christian Sources”. This symposium is